At the scene of recent travel ban vigils inside Dulles International Airport, Virginia Delegates Lee Carter (D-50) and Kerrie Delaney (D-67), clergy, 200 airport workers and allies will rally and display giant photos of immigrant women fired by airline contractor, Huntleigh USA today at 12 noon. The group will also deliver letters demanding the workers be rehired by Huntleigh, which their union, SEIU 32BJ, says “has a long history of mistreatment of their almost exclusively immigrant workforce,” including allegations that it fired workers for speaking out. “I worked hard, I loved my job and the passengers really appreciated the service I provided them,” said Manju Ara Islam from Bangladesh who lost her job for allegedly soliciting tips as a wheelchair agent. “But now I am struggling to survive, I can’t pay my bills and I’m sick with worry!” “It’s clear these workers need a union to fight back against Huntleigh’s bad labor practices,” said Delegate Carter. “They deserve the stability, work and dignity of a good union job.” “We affirm, as a fundamental principle, that labor, the creator of wealth, is entitled to all it creates.”
Phillips was a 19th Century American orator and abolitionist Click here to check out this week's Labor History Today podcast. In Chicago, 30 workers are killed by federal troops, more than 100 wounded at the "Battle of the Viaduct" during the Great Railroad Strike - 1877 President Grover Cleveland appoints a United States Strike Committee to investigate the causes of the Pullman strike and the subsequent strike by the American Railway Union. Later that year the commission issues its report, absolving the strikers and blaming Pullman and the railroads for the conflict - 1894 Battle of Mucklow, W.Va., in coal strike. An estimated 100,000 shots were fired; 12 miners and four guards were killed - 1912 President Truman issues Executive Order 9981, directing equality of opportunity in armed forces - 1948 The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect today. It requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities and bans discrimination against such workers - 1992 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services Thousands of union members and working people will take to the streets of thenation’s capital today while the House and Senate hold special sessions to give legislators the opportunity to speak out against anti-worker, anti-democratic orders being issued by the Trump administration. Click here to RSVP for today’s rally, starting at 12:30p at John Marshall Park (see Calendar for details). “These executive orders are yet more thinly veiled attempts to roll back workplace rights across the country,” said AFGE, which is hosting the rally. “These hardworking women and men do the day-to-day work that keeps our country running,” added the AFL-CIO. “This attempt to roll back the freedoms of working people will not further our democracy or even the economic playing field for workers.” |